What’s in the well

There is an old saying I have heard many times: What’s in the well comes up in the bucket.

It’s simple, but it’s true.

What is inside a person eventually comes to the surface. It may stay hidden for a while. It may be covered up by politeness, routine, good manners, or the ability to keep things together in public. But sooner or later, life has a way of lowering the bucket down into the well of our hearts. When it comes back up, it reveals what has been there all along.

Jesus said it this way:

“For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart” (Matthew 12:34).

In other words, what fills us eventually spills out of us.

I learned this the hard way when I was in college.

There was a time when we decided to clean out the refrigerator in our apartment. That’s a risky proposition in college life. You never know what you might discover hidden behind old leftovers, half-empty containers, and mystery meals nobody wanted to claim.

On this day, we found a gallon of milk.

The expiration date was in October.

We found it in June.

That jug of milk had been sitting in the refrigerator for months.

By the time we discovered it, the container was swollen. The milk inside was thick and chunky. It was no longer milk in any meaningful sense of the word. It had become something else entirely.

We knew we had to get rid of it, but for some reason that only makes sense to college students, we set it outside the door of our apartment for a few days first.

Unsurprisingly, that did not improve the situation.

Eventually, someone decided the best way to rid ourselves of this ever-expanding dairy dilemma was to toss it from our third-floor balcony.

When that jug hit the ground, it exploded in a scene that still haunts my nightmares.

It was pungent. Repulsive.

The plaza below was filled with the most horrendous smell. What had been hidden inside that jug was suddenly exposed to everyone nearby. The stench lingered. Even the next day, you could still smell it. It seemed to soak into your clothes and settle in your nose as you walked by. It didn’t go away.

The fall did not make the milk spoiled.

The impact did not make it rotten.

The explosion simply revealed what was already true inside the container.

It is a picture that sticks with me.

There are moments in life that shake us up. Trials come. Frustrations build. Pressure rises. People disappoint us. Plans fall apart. We get tossed around by circumstances we did not choose and cannot control.

And in those moments, what is inside us often comes to the surface.

A harsh word.
A bitter attitude.
A fearful response.
A resentful spirit.

Those moments don’t create what is inside us. They simply reveal it.

That does not mean every difficult response makes us terrible people. But it does mean we should pay attention to what comes out when life squeezes us.

If anger keeps coming out, we should ask why anger has such a deep place in the well.

If bitterness keeps coming out, we should ask how long we have allowed it to sit there.

If fear keeps coming out, we should ask what has been shaping our thoughts more than the promises of God.

If complaint keeps coming out, we should ask whether gratitude has been neglected.

What’s in the well comes up in the bucket.

That is why Scripture calls us to be careful about what fills our hearts and minds.

Paul wrote,

“Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (Colossians 3:2).

That is not a call to ignore real life. It doesn’t mean we pretend struggles are not real or act like pain doesn’t hurt. It means we learn to let eternal truth shape earthly responses.

We fill our minds with what is above so that when life shakes us below, something godly comes out.

If we feed on bitterness, bitterness will eventually speak. If we dwell on resentment, resentment will eventually show. If we keep rehashing what is wrong with everyone else, eventually that will come up in the bucket.

But there is another way.

We can fill the well with the Word of God, prayer, gratitude, worship, truth, and reminders of God’s faithfulness.

Then, when life shakes us, something different begins to come out.

Patience may come up where anger used to.
Trust may rise where panic once took over.
Grace may replace harshness.
Prayer may interrupt complaint.
Hope may answer despair.

Not because the situation has changed, but because God has been changing what fills the well.

That’s both challenging and encouraging.

It is challenging because we cannot ignore what comes out of us. We cannot keep blaming every response on the circumstances around us. The broken jug may explain the mess, but it does not change what was inside.

But it is encouraging because we can fill the well differently.

God is not finished shaping us. The Holy Spirit still works in the hearts of His people. The Word still renews our minds. Prayer still refocuses and redirects us. Grace still changes us from the inside out.

You may not be able to control every circumstance that shakes you, but you can pay attention to what is filling you.

So fill your heart and mind with godly things.

Because eventually, the bucket will come up.

And when it does, it will reveal what has been in the well.

I pray what comes out of us points people to the goodness, patience, grace, and faithfulness of God.